[00:00] Marcus Shaw: Developing story this Sunday, March 29th.
[00:04] Marcus Shaw: From Neural Newscast, I'm Marcus Shaw.
[00:06] Announcer: And I'm Thomas Keene.
[00:08] Announcer: The Department of Homeland Security shutdown has crossed into new territory today,
[00:13] Announcer: officially becoming the longest partial government shutdown in United States history.
[00:18] Marcus Shaw: We are now on day 44 of this lapse, which began back on February 14th.
[00:24] Marcus Shaw: The previous record for a DHS shutdown was set when the department went without funding from October through mid-November.
[00:31] Marcus Shaw: But this current standoff has surpassed that mark with no clear-end insight.
[00:36] Marcus Shaw: Negotiations reached a new low Friday after House Republicans passed a short-term funding bill that the Senate has already signaled it will not take up.
[00:46] Marcus Shaw: This follows Speaker Mike Johnson's rejection of a bipartisan Senate bill that funded all of DHS except for ICE and Customs and Border Protection.
[00:57] Announcer: The impact on the ground is most visible at airports.
[01:01] Announcer: TSA officers haven't received the paycheck since the standoff began, even though they're still required to report for work.
[01:08] Announcer: We've seen hundreds of resignations and thousands of call-outs,
[01:12] Announcer: which has pushed security wait times to several hours in some hubs.
[01:17] Announcer: On Friday, President Trump signed an order directing DHS to pay those TSA workers,
[01:22] Announcer: and the department spokesperson says those checks could arrive as early as Monday.
[01:27] Announcer: However, the broader funding for the department remains stuck
[01:30] Announcer: because the Senate isn't scheduled to return until April 13th,
[01:34] Announcer: while the House is out until the 14th.
[01:37] Marcus Shaw: While Washington is stalled, the global economy is facing a massive shock from the Middle East.
[01:43] Marcus Shaw: Emirates Global Aluminum confirmed Saturday that its Al-Tawila site in the Khalifa Economic Zone, Abu Dhabi,
[01:50] Marcus Shaw: sustained significant damage during an Iranian missile and drone attack.
[01:55] Marcus Shaw: This facility produced 1.6 million tons of metal last year alone.
[02:00] Marcus Shaw: While some employees were injured, the company reports no life-threatening injuries, but the damage to the infrastructure is extensive.
[02:08] Announcer: This is a major blow to the global supply chain.
[02:12] Announcer: The Gulf region produces about 8% of the world's aluminum, and several producers have already declared force major.
[02:19] Announcer: Aluminum is a critical component for everything from solar panels and wind projects to the transportation equipment we monitor daily.
[02:27] Announcer: We're also seeing the energy markets react violently.
[02:31] Announcer: Oil crossed $100 a barrel on Saturday,
[02:34] Announcer: and gas prices are nearing $6 a gallon on the West Coast,
[02:38] Announcer: largely because the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.
[02:41] Marcus Shaw: The retaliation from Tehran is hitting beyond just the heavy industry sector.
[02:46] Marcus Shaw: We are seeing reports that garment shipments from India and Bangladesh are stranded at airports,
[02:52] Marcus Shaw: and South Korean chipmakers are warning of potential helium shortages.
[02:57] Marcus Shaw: Even digital infrastructure is under threat after drone strikes on data centers in the UAE and Bahrain.
[03:04] Marcus Shaw: It seems Iran is leveraging every economic tool it has during this month-long conflict,
[03:10] Marcus Shaw: which has already claimed the lives of 13 United States service members.
[03:15] Announcer: The interconnectedness is the real story here, Marcus.
[03:18] Announcer: When a producer like the UAE, which is the fifth largest aluminum producer globally, takes a hit,
[03:24] Announcer: it ripples through nickel production in Indonesia and medical equipment manufacturing in Europe.
[03:30] Announcer: With a straight-up her moose closed, these secondary supply chain failures are going to become more common as companies exhaust their existing stocks on the water.
[03:40] Marcus Shaw: We will continue to track both the legislative stalemate in D.C. and the evolving situation in the Gulf.
[03:45] Marcus Shaw: From Neural Newscast, I'm Marcus Shaw.
[03:48] Announcer: And I'm Thomas Keene.
[03:49] Announcer: Neural Newscast is AI-assisted, human-reviewed.
[03:52] Announcer: View our AI transparency policy at neuralnewscast.com.